YEARLING SALES 31 



— to animals that have done great things ; and are 

 nevertheless presently found to be worthless for racing 

 purposes. Those who give three or four thousand 

 guineas for such an animal are usually rather slow to 

 understand, or at any rate to approve, the appositeness 

 of the adjective in that common phrase, "the glorious 

 uncertainty of the Turf." The so-called " Figure 

 System," which is supposed to show how Derby 

 winners are to be bred by mathematics, is in my 

 opinion utterly futile. 



The Queen's yearlings, which used to be sold at 

 Bushey Park, appear no more, the Royal stud having 

 been abolished ; but at the Ascot Meeting a number 

 of lots come up, and at various other times and places 

 yearlings are offered ; though at the Newmarket 

 December sales, which have of late years grown to 

 considerable importance, few yearlings are to be found, 

 the catalogues being chiefly made up of horses in 

 training, mares and foals. In the sales of blood stock 

 from December 1896 to October 1897, tabulated in 

 Ruff's Guide to the Turf, no fewer than 1 10 animals 

 sold for ten guineas or less ; some only fetched three 

 or four, and if the figures had been extended to include 

 a minimum of eleven guineas, the number ^would have 

 been considerably increased. Some of these may or 

 may not be cheap ; for if a seller may be well out of a 

 worthless animal at five guineas, a buyer may make 

 an excellent bargain when he gives eleven hundred 

 times as much. This, 5,500 guineas precisely, was, as 



